Love letters from the pen of Riley Poole
by Dark-Dreymer
Summary: Ben/Riley. Riley has only ever sent four love letters, the fourth one was to Ben. Just a quick little fic to take the characters out for a test drive. Do not own them, or there'd have been more kissing and maybe a few shirtless scenes XD


Title: Love letters from the pen of Riley Poole  
Author: Dark-Dreymer  
Pairing: Ben/Riley  
Rating: PG-13  
Summary: A quick fic to experiment with the characters a little.  
Comments: Are really appreciated.

The first time Riley ever sent a love letter he was in fourth grade. It was a Valentine's day card for Becky, the girl who sat next to him, he spent a good half hour composing the poem inside. (_Roses are red. Violets are blue. Your braces are cute and I like you._) She let him walk her home every day for the next two weeks before someone else asked her out, crushed Riley swore he'd never send a love letter again.

Riley's second love letter stayed true to his vow. He wrote a lengthy letter detailing his many (many) reasons for liking Jessica, the unattainable beauty of the Junior year, and kept it hidden in his locker so he could read it every day and try to work up the nerve to ask her out. He'd written it in Elvish to ensure if it were to fall into the wrong hands no harm could be done, which turned out to be a good idea when it vanished a mere three weeks after he wrote it. Jessica was waiting outside his English class the next day, it turned out she was a fan of Tolkein's work.

The third love letter Riley ever sent was also the first love letter he ever sent to another man. It was his first year of college and he sent the letter to Matt, the guy two computers down in his IT class. It was carefully coded and Riley expected to have at least a few days to prepare himself for an answer. Matt cornered him in the library after lunch and kissed him against the biographies shelf.

The fourth love letter Riley ever sent was to Ben. It had taken a long time to write; he'd restarted more times than he could count, had a dozen panic attacks about the very idea of sending the letter (where he'd left the project alone for weeks on end before relenting and starting over) and checked through history books and volumes of Renaissance love poetry in hope of finding something that would capture Ben's attention (and hopefully his heart) but in the end he'd gone for something personal and cliché.

_Ben,_

_A long ago Abigail accused you of being a treasure hunter, out to steal priceless artifacts, and you told her you were a treasure protector. I have to tell you Ben she was right, you stole my heart a long time ago but maybe, just maybe, you can be a treasure protector again._

_Riley. X_

The message was in the format of an e-mail and it was sat in Ben's inbox just waiting to ruin Riley's life.

_How could I be so stupid? _Riley mentally yelled at himself, pacing the room in worry. He would quite like to send a virus to Ben's computer that would erase his horrible sentimental words and save his friendship, but there was far too much valuable data stored in Ben's computer that would be unfairly destroyed in the crossfire so Riley reached his decision. He'd have to find Ben's computer and destroy the accursed lover letter manually.

*

Ben's study door was open.  
Ben's computer was turned on.  
Ben's computer had an Internet browser opened.  
Ben's computer was displaying the sickly words of Riley's love letter.  
"Shit!" Riley felt his head hit the desk, "I'm dead." The techie would probably have died of embarrassment then and there if a chance for further humiliation hadn't presented itself. The front door opened and Riley could hear Ben making his way into the house.

Riley was on his feet within moments and bounding down the stairs, "Hey Ben, I was just looking for you," He proclaimed with a slightly manic grin. He'd tell Ben there was an odd virus going around that sent sappy love poetry to every contact in the person's e-mail account. Implausible perhaps but he could make Ben believe it, after all the man wasn't exactly computer literate.  
"Hey Riley," Ben smiled warmly, shifting the shopping bag in his hand as he pulled his coat off.  
"What's that?" Curiosity overtaking Riley's impulse to start lying immediately the younger man felt the need to inquire.  
In response Ben opened the bag and pulled out a woolen scarf, it was sky blue with a white diamond pattern at either end, Riley twitched slightly as Ben leaned close and placed the scarf round the techie's neck, "That should keep your heart nice and safe," Ben smiled very slightly as he said it, one hand pressed to Riley's chest so he could feel the nervous heartbeat.  
"Yeah," Riley smiled uncertainly for a moment and then Ben pressed a chaste kiss to his lips.

So maybe love letters weren't so bad after all.


End file.
